Local & Regional

2:37 pm

Tue March 18, 2014

Oklahoma Court Resets Executions Amid Drug Search

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma court has rescheduled executions set for this month so state prison officials have more time to find a supply of lethal drugs.

While two inmates had sued challenging Oklahoma's execution procedures, the Court of Criminal Appeals declared Tuesday that their request for a stay was moot because the prison system doesn't have enough drugs to execute them.

In their brief order, the judges moved Clayton Lockett's execution to April 22 and Charles Warner's to April 29. They had been set to die this week and next week.

Oklahoma's attorney general's office told the court Monday that prison officials didn't have enough doses of lethal drugs on hand and that it was unlikely they could find some in time to execute Lockett this Thursday.